St Paul’s Anglican Church
205 Burwood Road, Burwood
3pm on Saturday 3rd September

Will joined SFL as a double bass teacher at the same time that Sarah joined as a nine year old student in September 2018. They have now been together for four years.

Christopher Nicholls has died, suddenly. An accident in his home.
Chris inspired and led the creation of Symphony for Life Foundation.

Now, at last, we have been able to start the orchestra again. The players who continued with lessons and returned for orchestra have improved a lot! And they seem very happy to be back together.

Three intensive days at The King’s School at Parramatta ended with a fabulous orchestral performance with all players participating

The Symphony for Life Orchestra played throughout the day on 9th July at Westfield Parramatta 

Congratulations to our Symphony for Life students who successfully completed their AMEB exams early this year

Professor Gary McPherson was Director of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. He has now moved to Sydney and he has agreed to join the Board of Symphony for Life Foundation

Photograph: Rohan Thomson We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Sally Walker, Woodwind Lecturer at the Australian National University and Principal Flautist of the Omega

Save the date! Thursday 14th October The Symphony For Lockdown Virtual Concert will take place: Thursday 14th October 7pm Sydney time We will publish and

Thank you so much for your interest in Symphony for Lockdown! We’re now running out of time before we need to get all the video

Mandy Yan and her Macquarie colleagues organised our online fundraiser to keep the music playing in 2021. Huge thanks to The Macquarie Foundation for their support.

For decades past, there has been research all over the world to discover the benefits of music education – other than learning to make music.
The research has shown benefits such as increased self-esteem and self-confidence, faster brain development and increased socialising.

The first part of 2020 has proven a huge challenge to us all, keeping our families safe, keeping businesses afloat but also making sure that the essential work done by not-for-profit organisations like Symphony for Life continues to support our communities when they need it most.

Our priority over the last months has been to keep our program staff and children safe above everything else; we had to abandon face-to-face teaching and pause while we put the teaching program online. We are now up and running with a 100% digital program across lessons, mentoring and group classes.

Our program first got off the ground in Wentworthville in September 2017 when the first students came to be sized up for instruments. Some of those students are still with us, some have moved on and many more have joined us. It has been two years marked by growth: our teachers have grown as a team, our students have grown as musicians, and our program has grown into a fully-fledged string orchestra with a group of young beginners not far behind!

Some Symphony for Life kids and parents saw two fantastic orchestras in 2019. Live. In person.
They had free tickets to brilliant concerts by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Our children are learning to play the instruments of the orchestra and they have their own beginning orchestras. But most of the children and their parents had never heard a live performance by a professional orchestra.

2019 ended very well for Symphony for Life. Our program has taken off and we are sustaining good progress with lots of appreciation and enthusiasm for the project. It is exciting to see the engagement of the parents in the learning which means a wonderful sense of community is starting to develop.

On Monday October 21st there was an inspiring evening of music, song and stories to highlight the work of our Foundation. The event was made possible by the amazing work of The Macquarie Foundation who not only hosted the event in their Martin Place HQ but also matched every dollar raised during the week of the Fundraiser. We hope to share with you very soon the final amount raised, in the meantime here are some images from a memorable evening.

The end of term 2 saw our first big combined orchestras concert for 2019. Both the Freedman Youth Orchestra, and the Paramatta Children’s Orchestra took to the stage. Each orchestra showcased what they had worked out throughout the year so far, and then combined for a final item for the evening involving over 70 young string players.

Parents, friends and family all attended and there was a real sense of community and admiration for what the kids are achieving.